Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grant

I am contacting you to make you aware of the Retail , Leisure and Hospitality Grant being administered by East Riding of Yorkshire Council that the Community building you manage may be eligible for – if you are successful in an application please can you let me know. The form is very simple so it might be worth completing regardless to ensure that your organisation is on the radar as making an enquiry as additional funding is going to be placed into support for organisations (see point 2).

1) Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Eligibility

Properties which on the 11 March 2020 had a rateable value of less than £51,000 and would have been eligible for a discount under the business rates Expanded Retail Discount Scheme had that scheme been in force are eligible for the grant. Charities which would otherwise meet this criteria but whose bill for 11 March had been reduced to nil by a local discretionary award should still be considered to be eligible for the RHL grant. Recipients will receive one grant per eligible property.

Based on the MHCLG guidance on the Expanded Retail Discount, eligible charities are likely to include: charity shops, museums, galleries, historic houses, sport charity facilities, theatres, public halls (including village halls and community halls), and clubhouses, clubs and institutions. Unfortunately, the grant will not apply to properties with exemption from business rates.

The Business Secretary Alok Sharma and Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government, Simon Clarke spoke to local authorities in England yesterday to set out that up to £617 million would be made available.

This is an additional 5% uplift to the £12.33 billion funding previously announced for the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF), so up to £617 million. We will confirm the exact amount for each local authority next week.

This additional fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs. We are asking local authorities to prioritise businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief, and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates. But local authorities may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need. The allocation of funding will be at the discretion of local authorities.

Businesses must be small, under 50 employees, and they must also be able to demonstrate that they have seen a significant drop of income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.

There will be three levels of grant payments. The maximum will be £25,000. There will also be grants of £10,000. local authorities will have discretion to make payments of any amount under £10,000. It will be for councils to adapt this approach to local circumstances.

Further guidance for local authorities will be set out shortly.

As of 27 April, over £7.5 billion has been paid out to over 614,000 business properties via the SBGF and RHLGF schemes. This is over 61% of the grant funding allocated to local authorities.